I got an eye-roll, a *sigh* and a "you should watch something else" from this guy after I cited a particular statistic that, as it turns out, was used in Jeff Daniels' famous meltdown-rant on The Newsroom.

If the guy were a FOXhead, I probably wouldn't have cared, but he isn't; he's worse. He is so disgusted by the state of our system that he doesn't even want to discuss politics; he's been depressed into submission and non-participation.

He got particularly agitated when I told him that, by doing nothing, he was helping the bad guys.

Has anyone researched the sources of the statistics used in The Newsroom rant? I don't have HBO, but I don't want any arguments I make to instantly lose credibility with people-who-have-lost-all-hope when my facts also happened to show up on that show.

Perhaps an even better question is: How do you talk about November with the "totally-defeated," "it's pointless" class of liberals?

Some friends of mine were talking about that block of time between 2am-6am (when you can't buy alcohol in CA) when most TV channels are either airing infomercials or those "lonely-guy" phone-sex/escort ads.

Is there actually a jargony-sorta name in the TV industry for this block of time -- like maybe "Suicide Watch" or "The Despair Block" or "The Void?"

...because being into or having knowledge of anything that isn't Mad Men or Breaking Bad makes one, like, a total geek-face, right?

Anyway, this friend officially became a contributor to the "articles" section of Skyrim Forums during the wee-small-hours of this morning. To do that, you have to submit an article. Then other geek-faces who mod the site read it and, if they like it, the submission becomes an "official article."

The mods agreed that my friend's idea for an article about Skyrim written from the POV of a character in Skyrim was a way-cool idea to try out as an "article" instead of "fan fiction," so the article went up this morning.

The initial response to it has been very good; if it takes off, it will become a series.

“M'aiq saw a mudcrab the other day. Horrible creatures. They've got all the money. Mudcrabs taking over everything. They already run Pelagiad.” – M'aiq The Liar

***

Whump. Whump. WhumpWhump.

Mehitabel has read many books, never a single one about mudcrabs. Perhaps the mudcrab, throughout history, has yet to accomplish enough to attract the attention of those who write books. This seems like the easiest answer in the world.

If all of this one's experiences were to be, through no small amount of effort, concentrated within an enchanted gem at death, hauled to a forgotten ruin on the other side of the world, placed within some apparatus of presumably Dwemer origin and projected onto a wall of the ruin – a ruin which had no doubt claimed the lives of many members of the expedition, each of them dying with a sad, unique story upon their tongues – the survivors, eager to claim what must certainly be the most sought after knowledge in recent history, would read upon the wall:

Political articles/pictures/opinion have made up about 90% of my activity on Facebook for a long time now. I don't get very many "likes" or "shares" or even comments; if not seeing instantly gratifying results were a deterrent, I would have gone back to "look what my baby/cat/dog did/said/ate" a long time ago...

...but I just kept doing it.

First there was the friend who PM'd me a year ago to tell me that she had moved her money out of BofA to a credit union thanks to me.

Then came the trickle of likes and shares from a tiny group of friends, which has slowly grown to a not-so tiny group.

Finally, in the last month or two, a week doesn't go by without at least one of my "I don't 'do' politics" friends prefacing a political post with "I don't usually post political stuff on Facebook, BUT..."

Doors open for the Friday event at 10 a.m.; guests should enter through the Bultman Center’s main doors and allow enough time to pass through security before entering the arena. The first 1,000 attendees will receive a limited edition Mitt Romney foam mitt or baseball.